Building Without Nails The Genius of Japanese Carpentry | Forum

We've heard of the genius "technology" used in ancient times to build
towering monuments with nothing more than primitive tools like stones
and ropes. The Egyptian pyramids of old is a great example.

Back
in the far east, Japan had plenty to offer the ancient world as well
when it came to resourceful inventions and crafts. Traditional Japanese
Carpenters built houses, temples, and castles, without the use of nails,
screws, or bolts.
In a documentary interviewing one of the few
remaining practitioners of this seemingly lost art of carpentry, an old
Japanese master craftsman exclaims "No bolts, no nails. It lasts
longer!". Proudly claiming its effectiveness that no one would be able
to argue against its success in the form of several majestic towering
temples all over Japan still standing to this day.
After being
subjected to harsh weather and clashes of changes in civilizations for
well over a thousand years. But with the bold statement comes a clear
understanding that the success to this art isn't because they designed
it to withstand "against" nature, instead, it is all about being "with"
nature.

Moving his livelihood to New York and sharing his art
form of old Japanese wood working to the world, Isao Hanafusa, co-owner
of Miya Shoji, has carved himself a unique niche in the competitive
market of the furnishing industry.
Sought out and revered by New
Yorkers wanting that embrace with nature in their interior decor with a
style and durability in craftsmanship that can't be rivaled by most
factory produced alternatives.

All furniture selections in Miya
Shoji showrooms are hand crafted, even the types lumber used in all his
crafts are hand selected by Hanafusa himself. Isao Hanafusa was a
graduate of Industrial Revolution studies of which he states has
produced countless wonders for the modern world, but its cold machinery
has also tragically killed off individual talent that is supposed to
reside in craftsmen.

To this day, he rejects criticisms of his
methods being unnecessarily old fashioned, because with all the bold
talk of technologically advanced tools and methods used in modern day
construction work, the Hanafusa family believes a thousand years worth
of talent refinement and mastery should not be thrown away in exchange
for mass production convenience.

Nor is it going to back down
from the contest that their crafts will last even longer than rigid
concrete and metal structures for the simple fact they are not designed
to resist against the force of mother nature, but to live with her.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMtSc2MJLcw